Printed Form, with holograph signature of Hillhouse as Comr. of the School Funds.
Hartford: March 1st, 1815. Item #702 Small 4to broadside. 245 x 200 mm., [9 ½ x 8 inches]. [1] page. Docketed "James Hillhouse/April, 1815" in an unknown hand on verso. Old folds, minor wear and browning to fore-edge. Very copy of this rare government document outlining the changes that will be made as to the timing of interest payment to the School Funds because of the banking crisis which to place after the War of 1812. Reading, in part: "Sir, The derangement which has taken place respecting Bank paper, and the difficulty of obtaining Bills of the Banks of this State to pay the interest on School Fund bonds, has induced me to extend the privilege of making payment of the interest due prior to this date to the first day of June next, charging interest thereon from this day, as an indemnity for the discount I may be necessitated to pay at the Banks for money to meet the dividends to the Schools...." Hillhouse goes on to warn that failure to pay interest in full by June 1st will result in the loan of [$475.13 in ms.] being called. Thereafter payments will be due twice a year, in September and February, with no further extensions to be granted. Resigning from the U.S. Senate in 1810, Hillhouse was appointed commissioner of the School Fund which had accrued to Connecticut from the sale of the western lands after 1795. In the interim the fund had become "a tangle of unpaid interest and depreciated securities. In a light sulky Hillhouse traveled through the unsettled country, inspected the properties and met with debtors, and administered the fund so well that when he resigned in 1825 ... he handed over to the state an augmented and well-invested fund." Dictionary of American Biography.
Price: $125.00